Election Notebook

The country's two major
political parties go into the fall presidential campaign after national
conventions that both sought to make education a defining theme.

Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, vowed to make
education the "nation's No. 1 priority" at his party's meeting, held
Aug. 14-17 in Los Angeles.

Two weeks earlier, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the Republican
nominee, emphasized the need to provide "every child" with the
opportunity to learn during his speech to the GOP convention in
Philadelphia, held July 31- Aug. 3.

Mr. Bush and his running mate, former Secretary of Defense and U.S.
Rep. Richard B. Cheney, homed in on the achievement gap between
disadvantaged students and their wealthier peers and contended that the
Clinton-Gore administration had not done enough to close that gap.

"This generation was given the gift of the best education in
American history," Mr. Bush said in his nomination-acceptance speech.
"Yet we do not share that gift with everyone."

Both Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush have pledged more federal funding for
education programs, including teacher-quality initiatives and special
education, and tax breaks for higher education, though the price tag
for Mr. Gore's proposals still far exceeds that of his Texas rival.
(Mr. Gore has pledged to spend an extra $115 billion over 10 years on
education initiatives; Gov. Bush would spend about $47 billion more
over 10 years.) Both candidates also propose instilling more
accountability into existing federal education programs.

But Democrats tried to draw a clear distinction between their views
and the GOP agenda. Mr. Gore and his running mate, Sen. Joseph I.
Lieberman of Connecticut, said the Republicans did not offer enough
funding to hire high- quality teachers, help pay for school
renovations, or make other needed improvements.

"Sometimes, it seems to me like their idea of school modernization
means buying a new calendar for every school building," Sen. Lieberman
quipped in his speech to the Democratic delegates.

Republican delegates approved a party platform that calls for
"progressively" limiting the federal role in education, with an
emphasis on providing greater flexibility and increasing school
choice.

Some Republicans were quick to emphasize that the document excluded
any reference to eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, as the
party's platform proposed four years ago. The shift is consistent with
Gov. Bush's emphasis on an active federal role in education. Even so,
the document declares that education "is a state, local, and family
responsibility, not a federal obligation."

The final language came after considerable debate on the platform
committee. Some members sought unsuccessfully to retain the call for
abolishing the Education Department.

Cheryl Williams, a delegate from Oklahoma who served on the platform
committee, said she was unhappy with the final language. "The federal
government does not have the authority to be in our classrooms," she
said in an interview during the GOP convention.

Education was a topic at the so-called "shadow" conventions, held
concurrently with the GOP and Democratic festivities.

Organized by the political commentator Arianna Huffington, a
self-proclaimed "recovering Republican," the shadow conventions drew a
mix of social liberals, radical reformers, and others, who spoke on a
variety of issues, including poverty, campaign-finance reform, and
drugs.

In Los Angeles, the author Jonathan Kozol told the shadow
conventioneers that he had been "let down" by members of Congress who
promised to help children in poverty.

"Most of them for years have promised much, but have produced
nothing," contended Mr. Kozol, who won national attention with Death
at an Early Age, his 1967 account of his stint as a teacher in
Boston, and more recently has written books about the children of Mott
Haven, a blighted neighborhood in New York City. "It does poor children
no good to say, 'Be patient,' " Mr. Kozol said.

In Philadelphia, the author Paul Grogan argued during a panel
discussion that both the Republican and Democratic parties have partial
blindness when it comes to education. He said that Democrats "defend a
failed system," while "Republicans are blind to the need for a very
significant public investment."

More than 500 members of the two major teachers' unions were
delegates or alternates to the Democratic convention, accounting for
more than 10 percent of the nearly 5,000 delegates and alternates
there.

The union members had a chance to cheer on their own leaders, as
well as the Gore-Lieberman ticket. Both National Education Association
President Bob Chase and American Federation of Teachers President
Sandra Feldman gave resounding endorsements to the Democratic nominees
at the Staples Center, the site of the convention.

Members of the two unions also came together to honor another of
their heroes, President Clinton, at a luncheon in Los Angeles. Mr.
Chase and Ms. Feldman awarded the president honorary lifetime
memberships in their unions and gave him an original drawing of the
"Cat in the Hat," signed by Dr. Seuss.

The unions were much less of a presence at the Republican gathering
in Philadelphia. There were, however, 42 NEA members who served either
as delegates or alternates at the GOP meeting. AFT officials did not
provide a count of how many, if any, of their members attended the
Republican gathering.

The Democrats and the Republicans, meanwhile, aren't the only
partisans trying to make a splash in education.

Patrick J. Buchanan has selected a former teacher and school
administrator as his running mate on the Reform Party presidential
ticket. Ezola Foster, who worked for 33 years in the Los Angeles
Unified School District, is a staunch conservative and an outspoken
critic of government involvement in schools.

"Both the Democrats and the Republican Party talk about failing
schools. Well, indeed, they are failing, because of the policies of
both parties," she said during the Reform Party's convention in Long
Beach, Calif., last month. She pledged to "take the government out of
our schools and give it back to the parents and the local
community."

In a 1995 book, What's Right for All Americans, Ms. Foster
also attacked what she says is the removal of religion from the
classroom. "As a 30-year veteran of the public schools, I can say with
some authority that taking God out of the classroom has deprived our
children of a system of beliefs and stripped them of any principles by
which to direct their young lives," she wrote.

During her time as an educator, Ms. Foster was a member of United
Teachers Los Angeles, a joint National Education Association and
American Federation of Teachers affiliate.

Despite his selection of a running mate, Mr. Buchanan may not end up
as the official Reform Party candidate. A faction of the party
separately declared John Hagelin the party's nominee, and the dispute
was still being sorted out last week.

Browse our daily coverage of the Democratic and Republican National
Conventions, including audio interviews.

For a breakdown of candidates' views on education issues, plus a
host of resources, see our special Web-only feature, Politics Watch 2000.

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.